Fantastic Metropolis

Silt would form the main stumbling block to acceptance of Johnson’s theories because she had chosen to base her research on a stretch of the Ichnetucknee River that had become the most polluted in Florida, primarily due to run off from nearby paper mills. (8) A 1920 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study, for example, showed a 300% increase in the Ichnetucknee’s silt level between 1916 and 1918. (9) The added silt made the river murky and slow-moving. Yet Johnson claimed to have “observed the squid in the water at some length while wearing snorkeling equipment,” a claim that is difficult to take seriously. (10) Any swimmer in those waters, in addition to imbibing possible carcinogens, would have been unable to see well enough to document the more than one hundred complex mating rituals, color fluctuations, and feeding habits set out in Johnson’s books.

Some experts believe that photographs from the period showing Johnson in an old fashioned bathing suit also undermine her claims. The cut and design of this suit, combined with the pale quality of Johnson’s skin, would have made her similar in outline and color patterns to a large predator fish of the Toxicana family, thus increasing the likelihood of squid flight upon her approach. (11)

In later years, Johnson explained that most of her results were obtained in a laboratory setting, but by then rumors of a life-long drug addiction had tarnished her reputation beyond repair. (12) ^[5] More importantly, the mayfly squid makes a poor laboratory subject; it refuses to eat and dies within a few weeks.

With the exception of her monographs on the squid’s life span, in which she coined the term “mayfly squid,” Johnson’s work is today considered primarily of historical importance. However, much to the irritation of many naturalists, the Florida Department of Education persists in renewing approval for a high school textbook called Fundamentals of Biology. This book uses quotes and excerpts from Johnson’s work to blatantly impart erroneous information on the life cycle of the freshwater squid.

Gregory and Rebecca Chapman: Advances in Observational Technology

More successful were the efforts of Gregory Chapman (1903-46) and Rebecca Chapman (1901-1962). One of the earliest husband-wife naturalist “teams”-both obtained their advanced degrees from Brown University-the Chapmans developed the world’s first “underwater blind.”

Tested along the banks of the St. Johns River in 1934, the Chapman Blind was modeled after the common bird blind. Made of glass and sunk into the hollowed-out bottom of a houseboat, the blind allowed 360-degree observation of the river bed. Reeds and other aquatic plants were nailed onto the hull of the houseboat for camouflage and green tinted glass masked movement inside the boat.^[6] To avoid drifting with the current, the Chapmans preferred narrow stretches of river where they could not only anchor the boat but also secure it to trees using long ropes. (13)

Over a period of weeks, the Chapmans moved their blind from location to location with no success. Then, finally, on May 4, 1935, near the St. John’s southern extreme, just before it becomes Lake George, a pair of mayfly squid appeared in the middle distance, visible through the murk as “emerald-silver capsules of light.” According to the Chapmans’ journal, these squid “soon approached the glass of the blind and hovered there, as if trying to figure out what it was, or perhaps entranced by their own reflections. Their bodies soon changed color-from silver to red to blue to green. After a minute or two, they disappeared, seeming to flicker out of existence.” (14)

Funded intermittently by developers,^[7] the Chapmans made valuable contributions to the mayfly squid research, especially in the area of “flash communications.” World War II cut the Chapmans’ studies short and sent Gregory to his death. Shortly thereafter, a belligerent 16-foot St. John’s alligator, known by the locals as “Big Jack,” destroyed the Chapman blind. (With typical calm, Rebecca Chapman recorded the precise details of the alligator attack in her journal.)

Today, outside of the insular world of cephalopod studies, the Chapmans are perhaps best known for the photograph that hangs in the old Capitol Building in Tallahassee. It shows them shaking hands with Frederick Preston Cone, Florida’s 27^th governor, in front of their beloved squid blind.

Leonard Smythe: Inadvertent Findings

Ironically, an amateur scientist named Leonard Smythe made the most important early discovery about the mayfly squid. For years, based on the lingering influence of Johnson’s books and the difficulty of accurate field studies, cephalopod experts had assumed that the adult female freshwater squid gave birth to a few fully-formed juveniles three or four times a year.